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2 more ex-USF players file discrimination suits

They say women's basketball coach Jerry Ann Winters treated black players differently.

By DARRELL FRY

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 11, 2000

TAMPA -- Two former University of South Florida women's basketball players filed federal racial discrimination lawsuits Tuesday against the university.

Patrice Coleman and LaTonya Greer, who are black, held a news conference Tuesday to explain their suits, which generally say that coach Jerry Ann Winters gave preferential treatment to white players during practice and games.

The claims echo earlier suits by former players Dione Smith and Avia Lee, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint by former assistant coach Tara Gibson, and public comments by former women's basketball secretary Lisa Walker.

Coleman, 22, and Greer, 24, said Tuesday they this Winters is a racist.

"She's a racist, but she probably doesn't realize it," Greer said.

Winters could not be reached for comment Tuesday. She repeatedly has declined to comment on similar allegations.

Coleman said Winters held black players "to a different, more rigorous standard than white players" and "criticized (blacks) more severely for errors."

Greer recalled several black players arriving late to catch the team bus in 1998 and Winters ordered the bus driver to leave them. She said three white players were late arriving three weeks earlier but Winters had the driver wait for them.

Coleman, a junior college transfer, played one season (1998-99) under Winters, then was declared academically ineligible. Coleman said she had no academic problems before coming to USF and that the emotional distress from Winters' discrimination caused her to perform poorly in the classroom.

"She made it painfully obvious she didn't like me, and I wasn't going to play for her," said Coleman, who petitioned the university for reinstatement but was denied.

Greer, who played her first two seasons under former coach Trudi Lacey, said the team's climate changed noticeably under Winters, going from an integrated atmosphere to a racially divided one. Black and white players rarely mingled during practice, team meals and on road trips, according to Greer's suit.

"That shows that before the current coach was there, race was not an issue," said Tampa attorney Jonathan Alpert, who represents Greer, Coleman, Smith and Lee. Alpert attended the news conference along with Gibson, Walker and Sevell C. Brown, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's St. Petersburg-Pinellas County chapter.

"And it should have made it obvious to the administration what was going on.,' Alpert said.

When her USF career ended in 1998, Greer said, she asked Winters about an assistant coaching position with the team and was told there were no openings. The next year Winters hired former player Sonya Swick, who is white, as an assistant.

Coleman and Greer said they complained to athletic department officials about Winters' treatment of black players around the time former assistant athletic director Hiram Green conducted an internal review of the situation last year. Coleman and Greer said nothing was done.

Green's review found a recurring theme of racism within the program, according to university documents. In response, athletic director Paul Griffin ordered Winters and the team to undergo a four-hour diversity seminar, according to documents.

"We thought Hiram would handle it, but that didn't happen," Coleman said. "We thought the university would do something, but that didn't happen, either."

Brown said his Southern Christian Leadership Conference office, which has informed the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' regional office of the USF controversy, is concerned about the allegations against the university.

"We want to make sure this comes to an immediate arrest," he said.

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